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97 Commercial UAV Expo 2018 | Show report “We have proprietary technology that will allow us to adapt to other battery types. The technology is focused on the battery management aspect, particularly on taking information from the batteries to optimise charging conditions for safety and speed of charge. “We also make that information available to fleet managers, to enable them to mitigate the risk of battery failure and reduce their note-taking for effective battery management.” By connecting with individual batteries via data ports as well as power interfaces, the AC M-1 autonomously logs them by their serial number and collects all the data about each one, including error codes and cycle counts, with other specifications varying between different battery manufacturers. The AC M-1 also integrates a proprietary cooling and acclimatisation system to cool or heat the batteries quickly (depending on the environment) to their optimum temperature for maximising the rate of charge and maintaining a safe environment to prevent battery damage or explosion. Different versions of the system are being developed. For example, cooling might rely on fans or Freon-filled tubes, reducing the time spent waiting for UAV batteries to cool down post-flight from one hour to 6-8 minutes. “With our system, you can cool and charge in 45 minutes, compared with two hours for most other systems,” Gleason said. Connect Tech displayed its Nvidia Jetson carrier boards for embedded software applications in unmanned aerial systems. Patrick Dietrich said, “We focus on producing commercially deployable small form-factor solutions for the Nvidia Jetson product line, such as the TX1, TX2, TX2i and the new Jetson AGX Xavier. They range from low-cost configurations with reduced feature sets to full-featured high-end models.” Connect Tech’s Jetson products have multi-interface camera inputs and are tailored for deployable vision-based AI applications. One product, the Spacely carrier, has six MIPI CSI-2 camera inputs for simultaneous processing, while another product, the Cogswell carrier, can host up to five Gigabit Ethernet cameras at a time, as well as up to three USB cameras. The company incorporates high- density interconnect processes to produce boards with up to 24 layers, laser-drilled vias, and blind/buried and stacked vias, all aimed at optimising for size constraints. Connect Tech’s Jetson-based designs are also qualified to perform from -40 to +85 C, to match the temperature range of the TX2i (the industrial-oriented Jetson embedded module). Honeywell attended the show with its HGuide n580, an integrated GNSS IMU solution for air and ground vehicle navigation. “It’s based on our HG4930 IMU, the first MEMS-type system we’ve produced for commercial purposes,” said Drew Karnick. “Although it’s been used in manned, military and industrial applications, it’s a non-ITAR product with no licencing required, which combined with its size, weight and power specifications make it useful for addressing a range of commercial UAV applications.” The company plans to offer the system in 10 different configurations for unmanned vehicle customers. Differentiating factors will include the number of antenna inputs or positioning services (access to Galileo and BeiDou, for example, or correction services such as SBAS, RTK or PPK). The n580 outputs time-stamped position accurate to 0.01 m with RTK or 0.6 m with SBAS, as well as pitch and roll to 0.015° and heading to 0.05°. Futaba has developed a new screw-drive servo actuator for use in the ailerons of helicopter-type vehicles. “The LJ9DA actuates at 95 mm/s, with 40 kgf of torque and a stroke of about 75 mm,” said Hiram Crisler. “It can be used in various applications, but the aileron on the helicopter is usually vertical and thus needs a vertical rather than a rotary gear, and it needs higher strength than most screw-mount servos have.” The servo weighs 720 g, is controlled via an RS-485 interface and is rated to IP64. Unmanned Systems Technology | December/January 2019 Battery management from Arctech Charge Honeywell’s HGuide n580 GNSS/IMU unit The LJ9DA servo actuator from Futaba